There are two kinds of people in the world: those who watch Spaghetti Westerns by themselves and those who watch them with their YouTube buddies.

If the latter sounds like fun, join us for a live viewing party of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" at 6pm PT in the Screening Room. To the right of the player, you'll see a Twitter feed collecting real-time tweets from other fans watching the film. If you want to contribute to the conversation, just log in to your Twitter account through the gadget and send your tweets, being sure to use the default hashtag, #screeningroom.

We'll be right there with you, sharing our own thoughts on one of the best westerns of all time. See you there!

Earlier this month, as part of YouTube Video Volunteers, we asked you to create a short video for the nonprofit organization of your choice tackling the issue of hunger in America. Today, we're featuring the top three submissions, chosen by our partner Feeding America and curator David Arquette, on the YouTube homepage in honor of Thanksgiving, to recognize the important work that is being done to feed those in need.

We were surprised and excited by the range of videos submitted. For example, partner bigedude33 penned an original song about the Food Bank of Central New York, while HavilahTower lent her voice to the Capital Area Food Bank in Texas:

Filmmakers like CassieJaye and nsmith345 powerfully depicted the faces of American citizens being helped by their local food pantries, while vlogger Shawn Ahmed went inside the L.A. Regional Food Bank to demonstrate exactly how they provide support to the Los Angeles community:

To view all Video Volunteer submissions for this month, please visit www.youtube.com/videovolunteers. And be sure to check the channel again next week when we kick off another Video Volunteers round, focusing on human rights, with curator Morgan Freeman.

We're running a special spotlight on the homepage today to showcase some of these videos, and this morning, Good Morning America featured a selection on television in honor of today's holiday. Take a look here.

If you were one of the millions who tuned in to watch U2 performliveon YouTube last month or if you just love music, you should put this in your calendar: On December 1, R&B superstar AliciaKeys will be performing at an intimate theater in New York City in honor of World AIDS Day. We'll be live-streaming the event worldwide and encouraging viewers to donate to Alicia's charity of choice, Keep a Child Alive.

Here's Alicia's special message about the concert and what it hopes to achieve:

This show, presented by American Express, will start at 8 p.m. (ET) on Tuesday, December 1. Tune in hereto watch Alicialive and help raise funds for children with HIV/AIDS.Michele Flannery, Music Manager, recently watched "Song of Mable" by Matryomin Ensemble Mable

Earlier this year, I visited Baghdad as a guest of the U.S. State Department to engage in conversations about the role of technology in Iraq. In discussions with elected officials, private companies and NGOs, I routinely heard the desire to connect with fellow citizens, Iraqis outside the country's borders, and cultures across the world. But it wasn't just the Iraqi Government who expressed an interest in YouTube — I was pleasantly surprised by the high level of awareness from a wide variety of Iraqis. One young student told us she uses YouTube to understand what is really happening in her country based on the variety of opinions, citizen journalism and news reports uploaded to the site. There was little difference between her examples and those we often hear in other countries, which speaks to both the global community on YouTube and the universality of the video experience.

Just this past week, our CEO Eric Schmidt traveled to Iraq to meet with government officials there about the challenge and opportunities they face. While in Iraq, Eric shot this video for Citizentube:

We hope that by launching on YouTube, the Iraqi Government and their citizens will also find it easy to use YouTube to engage in such conversations, and bring their proceedings, policies and ideas to a larger audience around the world.

Ninety days ago, we started Tweeting a how-to video each day, to showcase the near-infinite amount of knowledge that exists on YouTube. From high to low, life-saving to life-enhancing, there's likely to be a video about it on YouTube (see the list of tweets so far below).

Starting today, we'll count down 10 of the most popular how-to videos of all time. Follow us on Twitter to find out what they are or just to remember some true classics. Hint: one of them employs an onion in a very unusual way.

In addition, we're looking for users with specific areas of expertise -- for example, you make excellent cooking videos or you've fashioned yourself to be the "Dear Abby" of the YouTube generation -- to make tutorial videos, co-host Webinars, and/or guest blog in our Creator's Corner, a hub for new uploaders. Leave a comment with your channel name below if you're interested in participating.

Auto-Timing: Upload a transcript (a simple file with the text of what's said in the video), and through speech recognition technology we'll turn it into synchronized captions. Timing is the toughest part of creating captions, but now this should be much easier. The technology works best for videos with good sound quality and clear spoken English.

Auto-caps is a continued step towards YouTube's goal of making video accessible everywhere (web, mobile, TV) and to everyone (other countries, languages, alternative access modes). It's also an example of using technology to enhance the video experience. For more details, please check this post on the Google Blog.

To learn more about how to use auto-caps and auto-timing, check out our help center article and this short video:

YouTube and Kodak have teamed up to launch For Mom, a robust resource for anyone raising children today. The videos housed on this channel cover everything from cooking and parenting tips, to the best toys and games for kids, to easy ways to maintain your own health and beauty routine. There are even responses to some of life’s most difficult questions, like how much to pay the tooth fairy:

Anthropology professor Michael Wesch has the awesome job of studying YouTube and thinking about what it all means. We asked him to curate a playlist of his favorite videos, and he came back with an impressive list of clips that exemplify how the "wonderfully playful participatory culture" you've created manifests itself on YouTube. Four of those videos are on our homepage today, but he also wrote this thoughtful blog post to accompany his picks. Reading it, you'll get a sense of how a single video or person can create a ripple that swells into something so much bigger than ourselves.

What I love about online video is the way that it has allowed more people to join a global conversation. Television was a medium whose content was controlled by the few and made for the masses. It created a one-way conversation, and you had to be on TV to get your turn. We have all been excluded from that conversation for so long, it is no wonder that so many people are now jumping in (over 1 million videos uploaded online every day by my count).

One of my first favorites was Gary Brolsma's "Numa Numa dance," which he posted on Newgrounds.com in late 2004. When YouTube came along a few months later and made it so much easier for people to upload videos, thousands of people joined the dance. A search for "Numa Numa" now brings up over 125,000 videos, most of which are people doing their own rendition of the now-famous dance. And it is still going. [Recently], Brolsma led the Michigan State Band (and the whole stadium) doing the "Numa Numa."

There is a wonderfully playful participatory culture popping up all over the online video landscape.

Or remember how OK Go made their career with that amazing treadmill dance? But what could be cooler than doing it live at your high school in front of all your friends? Of course, Granbury High was not the only remake. There are hundreds, yes, hundreds of groups of high school kids who somehow wrangled together several working treadmills, rolled them into high school auditoriums all over the world, and did their thing.

Undoubtedly, some people performing on YouTube are hoping to be the next Esmee Denters. It wasn't so long ago that Esmee was just a young girl singing (beautifully) in front of a crappy webcam -- until one day she was singing a Justin Timberlake song in front of a slightly better camera, which slowly panned right to reveal that none other than Justin Timberlake himself was in the room, and that he had just signed her to a record deal.

There's still a lot of unsigned talent out there, like Megan Tonjes or mandyvbats, who was brought to my attention by the absolutely amazing work of Kutiman, a musician who brought together snippets of YouTube artists from all over the world, working in so many genres, to create such beautiful music (which to me is the real YouTube orchestra).

But my favorite online video moments are those where the participatory culture spills out into the real world. There is probably no better example than the Free Hugs movement. Now three years old, it is still going, and it's global. But of course it wouldn't be participatory culture without the clever parody, which Greg Benson of mediocrefilms performed brilliantly by offering his "Deluxe Hugs" for $2.

The tools for such clever commentary and remixing are always growing, and several of my new favorites are coming from the creative uses of Auto-Tune. The Gregory Brothers have really mastered this with their Autotune the News series. Melodysheep is now bringing his amazing talents to set the beautiful insights of the best scientists of recent years (like Carl Sagan) to some moving music.

So much of this creativity relies on the freedom to remix and build on the material created by others, a freedom that's constantly being challenged. Which brings me to one of my more serious recommendations: Brett Gaylor's RIP: A Remix Manifesto. Or for a wonderfully artistic statement within the same theme, one of the most amazing videos on all of YouTube is Us by Blimvisible.

My favorite video of all time still remains MadV's "The Message." It comes from the early days of YouTube, when so many of us were still just amazed that we could reach out to millions of people through our webcams. MadV invited us to write a message for the world on our hands. The resulting compilation may just become one of those iconic videos that our descendants hundreds of years might look back on and say, "So this is what they had to say when they first wired up all those computers and cameras throughout the world..." He's now doing an HD version if you want to join in.

If you are interested in how we try to make sense of all of this in anthropological terms, check out "An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube," where my students and I discuss many of these videos and a whole bunch more:

Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Kansas State University

Every day, people with video cameras are changing the ways we get our news. We see it during elections. We see it during earthquakes, fires and other natural disasters. We see it on our freeways, in our schools and in our public spaces. Almost any event that takes place today has a chance of being captured on camera. As YouTube has become a global platform for sharing the news, media organizations have been looking for a good way to connect directly with citizen reporters on our site so they can broadcast this footage and bring it to a larger audience.

That's why we created YouTube Direct, a new tool that allows media organizations to request, review and rebroadcast YouTube clips directly from YouTube users. Built from our APIs, this open source application lets media organizations enable customized versions of YouTube's upload platform on their own websites. Users can upload videos directly into this application, which also enables the hosting organization to easily review video submissions and select the best ones to broadcast on-air and on their websites. As always, these videos also live on YouTube, so users can reach their own audience while also getting broader exposure and editorial validation for the videos they create.

Though we built YouTube Direct to help news organizations expand their coverage and connect directly with their audiences, the application is designed to meet any organization's goal of leveraging video content submitted by the community. Businesses can use YouTube Direct to solicit promotional videos, nonprofits can use the application to call-out for support videos around social campaigns and politicians can use the platform to ask for user-generated political commercials. The opportunities to use the tool are as broad as the media spectrum itself.

It's getting to be that time of year again, when hosting dinners, attending parties, and finding the perfect gifts are top of mind. To help you navigate through it all, we're partnering with Target to bring you a channel full of videos from YouTube partners who know how to master every element of the holiday season. The channel is called Holiday Solutions and on it you'll find videos about seasonal cooking, party planning and creative gift ideas. For example, here are a few melt-in-your-mouth recipes:

We're excited to say that support for watching 1080p HD videos in full resolution is on its way. Starting next week, YouTube's HD mode will add support for viewing videos in 720p or 1080p, depending on the resolution of the original source, up from our maximum output of 720p today.

As resolution of consumer cameras increases, we want to make sure YouTube is the best home on the web to showcase your content. For viewers with big monitors and a fast computer, try switching to 1080p to get the most out of the fullscreen experience.

Just how much larger is 1080p? Take a look at the following screenshots from this video:

Standard - 360p

HQ - 480p

HD - 720p

HD - 1080p

Have an HD camera? We would love to see your awesome 1080p videos! Be creative and choose subjects that really show off the beauty of your camera. We will run the best examples on our homepage in a future spotlight.

And those of you who have already uploaded in 1080p, don't worry. We're in the process of re-encoding your videos so we can show them the way you intended.

Social features like commenting, rating, video responses and even just emailing or IMing a video's link have always been a part of the YouTube experience. So that's why we spend a lot of time here thinking about how to make the site an even more social place. We're especially focused on wanting to make it as easy as possible for you to find the people you know on YouTube and to follow their activity (what videos are they rating? favoriting? commenting on?) by subscribing to their channel; it's a great way to stay up on what they're into as well as discover new content yourself. As you consume these videos and start sharing your own, you in turn "feed" your friends a tasty helping of video goodness. It breaks into this virtuous distribution cycle:

We hope these numbers will only rise as we focus on giving you the tools you need to connect with the people who matter most to you. In the process, expect to be entertained and informed by the videos circulating amongst your most trusted friends, subscribers and networks. You can get started today by ensuring that you're discoverable on YouTube (click here and check off "Let others find my channel on YouTube if they have my email address") and by connecting your account to your external networks via AutoShare (click here to set that up).

What do you think "social" on YouTube means, and where would you like to see it go? Leave a comment below.

Today, we're shining the spotlight on the men and women who have bravely served -- and are presently serving -- in all branches of the U.S. military. Video has become a vital tool for current soldiers who are trying to communicate their wartime experience to the public and for older veterans who want to share their stories from past battles, like Lewis Bennett, the youngest member of the 84th District in World War II:

In addition, on the homepage, we're featuring content from those institutions and organizations that provide much-needed support to veterans. For example, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America has created a social network specifically for veterans and their families, while UCLA provides an adaptive sports therapy program for injured soldiers from the U.S. Army, including a regiment of rock climbing, wheelchair basketball, and table tennis. Here's a preview:

We're especially interested in recruiting top engineers. In return for your mean coding skills, we offer a dynamic environment that fosters openness, creative freedom, and a ton of interesting problems to be solved. "I'd compare it to working on an open source project with friends; people want to know what you're working on, have advice and help out however they can," says Phil, an engineer who's been with YouTube for 1 1/2 years. A typical day might entail intra-cube technical collaborations, tech talks, team lunches and "Don't bother me, I'm coding" sessions. There's also the leeway to work on projects you're passionate about, great perks and, ahem, a bunch of awesome people who work hard but also love to have fun.

Update (9pm PT): Unfortunately, this viewing party had to be canceled. We're sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Update (6pm PT): We're experiencing a technical glitch in the Screening Room, so we'll be pushing the viewing party back 1 hour to 7pm PT. See you there!

+++++++Tonight is your last chance to watch "Bram Stoker's Dracula" on YouTube, and your only chance to watch it with other vampire lovers from around the United States.

Join us in the YouTube Screening Room at 6pm PST for a live viewing party. To the right of the player, you'll see a Twitter feed collecting real-time tweets from other fans watching the film. If you want to contribute to the conversation, just login to your Twitter account through the gadget and send your tweets, being sure to use the default hashtag, #screeningroom.

We'll be there, along with our friends at Crackle, reacting to your thoughts and dropping a few of our own.

Uploading and sharing mobile videos on YouTube are getting kicked up another notch with today's launch of the Verizon Droid by Motorola. The Droid is the first device to run the latest version of Android (version 2.0) and introduces some remarkable improvements:

DVD quality recording and easier sharing: It is now possible to shoot DVD-quality videos and upload them to YouTube with a single flick of a finger. Droid is the first Android powered phone with DVD-quality recording, and it offers the ability to add effects like sepia, solarization and red tint to your videos. In addition, the new YouTube widget gives single-tap access to recording and sharing capabilities right from the home screen, making it even easier to broadcast those special moments or sights, or even silly ones like this video exploring six ways to have a fruitful finish to a lunch meeting:

It's more like the YouTube you're used to: The controls on the new YouTube application on Android 2.0 now have a look and feel that's much more like the YouTube desktop experience. We've also added the ability to manage personal subscriptions in 'My Account,' and so now, with the ability to search, share, rate, comment and of course view videos, the on-the-go YouTube experience is closer to the one you're used to on your computer.

High quality playback and brilliant screen: The Droid by Motorola has a brilliant 3.7 inch screen with noticeably high resolution and crisp colors: 854x480 pixels with 16M colors. The YouTube App on Android 2.0 plays videos in HQ automatically when you are on wifi, bringing the best possible YouTube watching experience to a mobile device. And if you are out of wifi range, you can still watch videos in HQ by selecting "Menu -> More -> Watch in high quality."

Happy watching, recording and sharing -- if you like, include links to your best Android-filmed videos below. We'd love to see the creativity that springs forth from this technology.

We're happy to welcome a comedy legend to YouTube today, as Will Ferrell's comedy think-tank Funny or Die joins YouTube as a partner. YouTube viewers around the world will now have access to a collection of Funny or Die classics, plus a steady stream of new videos being uploaded each week.

As comedy fans know, Funny or Die works with some of Hollywood's top comedic talent to create a trademark blend of humor, celebrity and web originals. Jack Black, Natalie Portman and Lindsay Lohan are just a few of the famous names you can catch in hilarious Funny or Die sketches, and you never know who will show up next.

To celebrate this new partnership, Will Ferrell has selected his favorite Funny or Die clips for the spotlight on today's YouTube homepage. Here's a message from the man himself, and his Funny or Die co-creator Adam McKay :

Thanks, Will and Adam! So if you want to keep up with all things funny, "subscribe or die" to Funny or Die's new YouTube channel.

On World Food Day, we asked you to donate to feed the billion hungry people in the world and your response was incredible: over 140,000 children got meals because of you. Thank you.

Now, we're looking at the facts close to home: one in eight Americans don't have enough food to eat, a fact that becomes even harder to digest at this time of year, as we prepare for Thanksgiving, a celebration of food and family.

Through Video Volunteers, we're hoping you can make a video for any nonprofit tackling the issue of hunger in America. You could create a video profiling the work your local food bank is doing or even volunteer to serve a meal at a shelter and record your experience. Hear more from David Arquette, our guest curator for this month's edition of Video Volunteers:

The top three videos submitted on the YouTube Video Volunteers channel will be featured on the YouTube homepage around Thanksgiving, alongside a video from our partner in this effort, Feeding America. Videos must be submitted by November 21 for consideration.

Face facts: in a swimming race against 14-time Olympic gold medalist swimmer Michael Phelps, you'd have no chance whatsoever...but you may be able to beat him in speed putting! If you can make more than 12 five-foot putts in a minute, you'll have bragging rights forever:

This is "The Best of Us Challenge," presented by the International Olympic Committee, where Olympic athletes challenge the YouTube community to compete in some truly unique events. For example, you can challenge American Olympic gold medalist gymnast Shawn Johnson by tapping-your-ears-while-doing-a-handstand. (FYI: she did it 54 times in 30 seconds.) Or take on one of the world's fastest men, Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell, who balanced a stick on his foot for two minutes and 30 seconds. Six-time Grand Slam winner and Olympic gold medalist Rafael Nadal picked up 24 tennis balls in 30 seconds (making great use of his groin area) — how many can you get?

If you've got the moxie to best these world class athletes, check out the The Best of Us Challenge channel on YouTube to learn how to submit your video. Prizes include a trip for two to the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games in February 2010 and a trip for two to the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in August 2010, as well as T-shirts, video games and posters. Submissions end on Sunday, November 15, so whatever your skill is — putting, hand-standing, hula-hooping, etc. — get out there and show the world your best.